1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains generally to rail car door closures. More specifically, the present invention relates to a system of rail car door closing wing assemblies that enable the simultaneous closing of multiple rail car hopper doors.
2. Description of the Related Art
The present invention relates to an apparatus for the closure of rail car doors, specifically, the discharge doors of a coal or aggregate hopper car. These doors are extremely heavy and when open, extend vertically downward on hinges from the car frame. When closed, the doors are latched to the car frame and thus secured to prevent opening. When an aggregate or coal car reaches a delivery site, the doors are opened and the contents of the car emptied into receiving areas below the tracks. The car doors must be closed, of course, prior to departure from the site and reloading. The doors are extremely difficult to close manually and such an undertaking is very dangerous to the workers involved in such an operation. Severe injuries may result if a car door fails to latch, swings back open, and strikes a worker.
Various efforts have been made in the past to provide a mechanized system to close these rail car hopper doors. The present invention makes significant improvements to the type of rail car door closer disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,886,473, Issued; May 3, 2005, to Marchiori and Clark; Entitled: Rail Car Door Closer, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
The above effort to provide a rail car door closer suffers from excessive complexity and/or difficulty of use. Although the wing shaped closer arm of the above cited disclosure provides an effective structure for directing the closure of pairs of rail car hopper doors, the mechanisms for manipulating the closer is complex and prone to misalignment. It would be desirable to have a rail car door closer that is relatively inexpensive, operationally simple, and safe to use.